


Rights and Obligations

by eriah211



Category: Primeval
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Dinosaurs, Gen, No Spoilers, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 12:00:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10555966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eriah211/pseuds/eriah211
Summary: Nick Cutter has to play host for the minister and his wife in their visit to the ARC and he is not happy at all about it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Livejournal in 2016.  
> Written for the primeval_denial monthly challenge (April 2016), using prompt 2 ("She was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you."- Terry Pratchett).   
> Thank you very much, as usual, to the ever wonderful fredbassett for the fast beta. All remaining mistakes are mine.

 

At first, Professor Cutter’s ability to walk around without being apparently affected by most regulations unnerved Lester no end. It was as if the man didn’t even notice the rules as he walked all over them on a daily basis.  
  
Eventually, though, Lester got used to it and considered himself lucky that Cutter at least respected the Official Secrets Act. In the end, he was an expert in his field, got the job done and kept civilians mostly unharmed, most of the time. The same couldn’t be said for public and private property, which somehow Cutter didn’t seem to care much about, but Jenny had become an expert on covering those damages and, fortunately for them, she did it quickly.  
  
It hadn’t taken Lester long to notice that Jenny hadn’t been the only one to have to adapt to Cutter’s carelessness. Stephen had taken care of writing the reports, Connor seemed to be the one to manage the tech and field supplies, and Abby always made sure that all the paperwork required to take care of the creatures was done.  Meanwhile, Cutter kept working on his theories and walking blindly through anomalies as if nothing else mattered.  
  
Nobody expected him to change at this point, or even knew how to try, Captain Ryan’s blunt techniques aside, but sometimes there were things that even the very busy Professor Cutter couldn’t ignore.  
  


 

***

 

  
“Let’s try again, just for fun,” Lester said dryly. “And this time I will use language a six year old child would understand: the minister and his wife want a tour around the menagerie, so the minister and his wife will get a tour around the menagerie.”  
  
“Why is his wife coming? This is not a fucking zoo!” Cutter replied. “Is she even supposed to know about the ARC project?”  
  
“Privileges of the highest circles, Professor,” Lester replied nonchalantly. “She has already signed the Official Secrets Act anyway so there is no reason why they both can’t visit the ARC.”  
  
“They can bloody well stay the night, if they want to,” Cutter replied angrily. “I just don’t see why I have to show them around as if I’ve got nothing better to do!”  
  
“The minister insisted they wanted to hear it all from the main expert of the project,” Lester answered. “And that is you, Professor, isn’t it?”  
  
Cutter’s face flushed with a mix of anger and frustration, but for once he didn’t find anything to add.  
  
Lester was enjoying this more than he thought he would. The minister was usually a pain in the arse, but for once it was going to be a shared pain. It was already difficult enough to get the funds they needed when the big man was in a good mood so even Cutter knew that they had to keep the minister happy if they wanted to keep the ARC project alive.  
  
“Well, then, I’m glad to see that everything is finally clear,” Lester added calmly, turning his attention back to the files on his desk. “Have everything ready for the visit on Friday and remember everybody has to address the minister and his wife properly. Miss Lewis can advise you on matters of protocol, if needed.”  
  
A choking sound was all the answer he got from Cutter before the man hastily left his office, but given the circumstances, Lester considered the meeting a success.  
  
As Friday approached, though, Lester started to feel a bit uneasy and found himself weighing the pros and cons of a sudden fire alarm, with the mandatory evacuation of the building, as a last, desperate measure. But when the day arrived and Lester saw a reasonably well-dressed Cutter addressing the minister, if not with joy, at least correctly, he finally allowed himself to relax slightly.  
  
He should have known better.  
  


 

***

 

  
  
Not even twenty minutes later, Lester discovered that a furious minister was far less imposing if he was half-covered by what looked, and smelled, like dinosaur poo. The minister’s wife, who had the same substance generously splashed over her and seemed to be about to faint, looked at her clothes in horror as their personal assistants flitted around them with tissues and handkerchiefs, unsuccessfully trying to clean the mess.  
  
To Lester’s relief, after offering his deepest apologies for a third or fourth time, the minister’s wife demanded to go back home immediately and the entourage left quite in a hurry. Nevertheless, there was no doubt that the conversation would continue soon and that more apologies would be needed.  
  
Lester turned to face Cutter and glared daggers at him.  
  
“They wanted to see everything,” Cutter simply stated as poo kept dripping from his clothes and hair. “I told them I didn’t think it was a good idea to get too close to the Nemicolopterus habitat, but since they were small and harmless, they insisted.”  
  
“So small and harmless, huh?” Lester said.  
  
“Yes, the Nemicolopterus are the smallest of the pterosaurs and very skittish,” Cutter explained with a neutral expression on his face. “They usually just fly away and hide.”  
  
“Hmm...”  
  
“But for what I have seen today, it seems like they use their excrement to deter predators when they feel threatened...”  
  
“It seems?”  
  
“Oh, yes, I would say so,” Cutter said. “Unless it’s a diet problem, maybe we still haven’t found the correct one. To be honest, we don’t know much about them yet.”  
  
“So a few frightened little creatures, possibly suffering from diarrhoea, have defecated all over one of the heads of our government?”  
  
“And his missus,” Cutter added, nodding seriously. “There is a bit of poetic justice in it, now that I think about it...”  
  
Lester pinched the bridge of his nose and, taking a deep breath, he tried to remember the reasons why he still wanted this job.

 

  
End


End file.
